Ilyoung Cho

Partner

T. +82-2-3404-0545
F. +82-2-3404-7687
E. ilyoung.cho@bkl.co.kr

Overview

Ilyoung Cho is a partner of Bae, Kim & Lee LLC. Prior to joining BKL in March 2013, Ms. Cho served as judge for 21 years, engaging in civil, criminal, administrative and family cases. Her career as judge began in the Cheongju District Court in 1992 and then continued through various levels of courts, including the Seoul Central District Court (judge), Seoul High Court (judge), Supreme Court (research judge), Incheon District Court (presiding judge in the Administration Division), and Seoul Administrative Court (presiding judge in the Tax Division). Moreover, based on her experience in serving as a research judge in the Supreme Court and handling a broad range of tax cases in the Seoul Administrative Court, she wrote and compiled books on tax litigation practices during her tenure in the Seoul Administrative Court. She has also co-authored books on tax and criminal laws.

Based on this experience, Ms. Cho mainly advises as a tax lawyer on tax cases, tax litigation (including a tax appeal, such as filing for adjudication of tax assessment), administrative litigation, and criminal tax litigation. In addition, she is currently a non-standing member of the Central Administrative Appeals Commission of Korea.

Related Practices

Representative Experience

2013-Present Bae, Kim & Lee LLC

2011-2013 Presiding Judge, Tax Department, Seoul Administrative Court

2010 Visiting Scholar, Fordham University School of Law

2009-2011 Presiding Judge, Incheon District Court

2007-2009 Research Judge (Leader of Tax Division), Supreme Court of Korea

2005-2007 Research Judge, Tax Division, Supreme Court of Korea

2003-2005 Judge, Seoul High Court

2002-2003 Judge, Western Branch of Seoul District Court

2000-2002 Judge, Seoul Central District Court

1996-2000 Judge, Suwon District Court

1992-1996 Judge, Cheongju District Court

2019-Present Member, Audit Advisory Committee, Ministry of Health and Welfare

2019-2021 Member, Advisory Committee, National Assembly Research Service

2017-2023 Member, Statutory Interpretation Deliberation Committee, Ministry of Government Legislation

2016-2020 Non-Standing Member, Administrative Appeals Commission of Seoul Metropolitan City

2015-2017 Member, Official Judging Committee, Seoul Regional Tax Office

2015-2021 Member, Cadastral Resurvey Committee of Seoul Metropolitan City

2015-2019 Member, Stock Blind Trust Examination Committee, Ministry of Personnel Management

2014-2020 Non-Standing Member, Central Administrative Appeals Commission

2013-2015 Senior Advisor, Seoul Regional Tax Office

2013-2014 Non-Standing Member, Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission

Representative Matters

Represented Hyundai Mobis in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented Korea Railroad Corporation in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of the refusal to revise corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented KT in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of VATs imposed on it

Represented OB Brewery in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes and other taxes imposed on it

Represented Philip Morris Korea in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of tariffs and other taxes imposed on it

Represented Hyundai Mobis in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented Korea Railroad Corporation in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of the refusal to revise corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented KT in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of VATs imposed on it

Represented OB Brewery in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes and other taxes imposed on it

Represented Philip Morris Korea in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of tariffs and other taxes imposed on it

Represented Celltrion Pharm Inc. in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented UBS Securities in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented SM C&C in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of imposition of corporate taxes

Represented Hanmi Medicare in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of corporate taxes imposed on it

Represented Samsung Electronics in the case involving the request for examination in respect of cancellation of imposition of corporate taxes

Represented GS Caltex in a tax appeal seeking, among others, cancellation of additional charges imposed on it under the Act on Special Cases concerning the Refundment of Customs Duties, etc.

Represented Korea National Railway in a lawsuit seeking cancellation of VATs imposed on it

Education

1992 Judicial Research and Training Institute, Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea

1987 Korea University (LL.B.)

Selected Activities

Publications

Tax Criminal Law (Co-author, Pyeongan, 2015)

Discussion of Whether Article 57 (2) 1 of Former Enforcement Decree of Inheritance Tax and Gift Tax Ac Is Null and Void, Just Jurisdiction, published for commemoration of the tenure of Yong Hoon Lee as chief justice in the Supreme Court (Jurisdiction Development Foundation, 2011)

Discussion of Applicability of Article 11 of Former Punishment of Tax Evaders Act to Person Obligated to Specially Collect Butchery Taxes under Local Tax Collection Act, Just Jurisdiction, published for commemoration of the tenure of Yong Hoon Lee as chief justice in the Supreme Court (Jurisdiction Development Foundation, 2011)

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 78 (Supreme Court Library, 2009)—in which he addresses the following issue: the existence of a special circumstance in which even if a company's executives, such as the representative director, the company's actual operator, appropriates the company's funds, such use of corporate funds may not be deemed an outflow of corporate capital.

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 78 (Supreme Court Library, 2009)—in which he addresses the following issue: whether, in the context of a golf course constructor having provided the golf course access road to the concerned local government for free, the expenditures incurred for purchasing the road site and paving the road may be treated as capital expenditures for the golf course site (affirmative)

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 76 (Supreme Court Library, 2009)—in which he addresses the following issue: whether an auction may be deemed a “transaction for consideration” between individuals under Article 273-2 of the former Local Tax Act

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 76 (Supreme Court Library, 2009)—in which he addresses the following issue: whether, in the context of a real property renter's place of business having been expropriated or transferred, the compensation that the renter received from the related project operator in the name of making up for losses incurred for the closing of the rental business is treated as business income, capital gains or income from the rental of the concerned real property under the Income Tax Act

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 73 (Supreme Court Library, 2008)—in which he addresses the following issue: whether in the case where part of the technology used in a made-in-Korea product exported to the U.S. was found to infringe on a U.S.-registered company's patent license, the amounts equivalent to the royalties that the product manufacturer pays to the patent holder for the purpose of resolving the infringement dispute are taxable as the U.S. company's royalty income sourced from Korea

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 73 (Supreme Court Library, 2008)—in which he addresses the following issue: whether the tax reductions or exemptions for small or medium start-up enterprises prescribed in Article 6 of the former Restriction of Special Taxation Act are in place to apply to the companies defined as small or medium start-up enterprises under the former Support for Small and Medium Enterprise Establishment Act and its Enforcement Decrees

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 71 (Supreme Court Library, 2008)—in which he addresses the following issue: whether, in the case where a person took out a life insurance policy with himself as the beneficiary and a third party as the insured and both the beneficiary (the policyholder) and insured died at the same time, the right to claim insurance benefits that is granted to the beneficiary's heir is an inherited asset

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 69 (Supreme Court Library, 2008)—in which he addresses the following issue and ruling: whether it is reasonable to make a tax assessment made pursuant to the general rules of the Corporate Tax Act; and the ruling that even if a company has not collected loan receivables from a specially related entity until the termination of the special relationship, such company is not deemed to have distributed to the specially related entity certain profits equivalent to the uncollected amounts and is thus not deemed to make any type of the wrongful calculations set forth in Article 88 (1) 9 of the Enforcement Decree of the Corporate Tax Act.

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 69 (Supreme Court Library, 2008)—in which he addresses the following issue: The time when a person who is defined as a member of a housing reconstruction association under the repealed Housing Construction Promotion Act comes to have the right to purchase, among others, a housing unit, the right that he or she is to acquire under the plan for the reconstruction project in return for his or her house or the housing land offered for the reconstruction project

A Judicial Precedent-based Study on System of Levying Heavy Registration Tax on Company Registering Real Property in Large City, Trial Materials Vol. 115 (Study on Tax Law, Supreme Court Library, 2008)

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 65 (Supreme Court Library, 2007)—in which he addresses the following ruling and issues: the ruling that a transfer of shares made to return the shares borrowed under a share lending agreement to the lender is a transaction on which no securities transaction tax shall be imposed because it is the case where “the x-object of loan for consumption is a share certificate” as prescribed in Article 6 (4) of the former Securities Transaction Tax Act and Article 3 (1) 1 of the Enforcement Decree thereof; and what is meant by the term “actual transaction value,” which serves as the basis for calculation of gains on transfer, and whether a transaction on which a transfer income tax is taxable, if made to return the amount borrowed for consumption purposes, is deemed impossible to determine its actual value (affirmative)

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 65 (Supreme Court Library, 2007)—in which he addresses several issues, for example: whether a taxpayer having intended to evade a gift tax is a requirement for imposing the gift tax on the taxpayer in accordance with Article 41 of the former Inheritance Tax and Gift Tax Act, which set forth certain types of transfers or provisions between an entity and its specially related entity for which the transferor or provider is deemed to donate the corresponding profits to the other party through such transaction

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 61 (Supreme Court Library, 2006)—in which he addresses the following issue: Whether, in the case where a Korean bank received the service at issue—transmitting messages on foreign exchange transactions—from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the service is deemed one that is provided by a foreign company in Korea and the bank is thus obligated to pay the corresponding VATs by proxy

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 61 (Supreme Court Library, 2006)—in which he addresses the following issue: how a person's purpose of tax evasion is construed in the context of the taxpayer's registration of his or her shares under someone else's name, where the trustor is deemed to have donated the corresponding profits to the trustee

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 61 (Supreme Court Library, 2006)—in which he addresses the following issue: how the acquisition value of each unit of a collective building shall be determined if all the units had been grouped and acquired in one lump and then underwent several rounds of divisions and transfers throughout two business years

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 61 (Supreme Court Library, 2006)—in which he addresses several issues, for example: whether the provisions of the proviso to Article 73 (1) 2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Local Tax Act applies where a seller of a real property, ahead of receiving the balance from the purchaser, had completed the title transfer registration, but, even before the lapse of 30 days after the registration completion, the real property purchase agreement was rescinded and accordingly the registration was cancelled

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 58 (Supreme Court Library, 2006)—in which he addresses the following issues: whether a gift by a will left by an invalid dictation of words spoken by the testator may be converted to a gift effective upon the testator's death; and whether there are circumstances where an inheritance tax payer may be justifiably exempted from paying additional taxes for the inheritance

Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions No. 55 (Supreme Court Library, 2005)—in which he addresses the following issue: when a land plot, if transferred by way of expropriation, is deemed to have been transferred for the purpose of calculating the gains on the transfer

Awards

Chambers Asia-Pacific - Leading Lawyer (2018-2024)

The Legal 500 - Leading Lawyer (2019-2024)

Who's Who Legal - Leading Practitioner (2023-2024)

Asia Women in Business Law Awards - Best in transfer pricing (Euromoney Legal Media Group, 2017)